Porn doctor appeals ‘manifestly excessive’ sentence

The Supreme Court in Hobart has heard the 18 month jail sentence given to a Hobart doctor convicted of accessing and possessing child pornography was manifestly excessive.

Doctor Jeremy Phillip Buddle was jailed in March for a minimum of 12 months.

The former GP downloaded 63,000 pornographic images of young boys on an almost daily basis between November 2005 and November 2009.

But his lawyer argued his obsessive collecting and filing of the images could be explained by his aspergers syndrome-like symptoms.

She says Buddle did not create spreadsheets and catalogues of the images like some other offenders.

But Commonwealth Prosecutor Ian Arendt said the doctor had been aware that what he was doing was illegal and had taken steps to avoid detection and had in the past shown he could control his desires when he chose to.

The full bench of the Supreme Court in Hobart has adjourned to consider Buddle’s appeal.

GP caught in global porn ring

A HOBART doctor recently jailed for a year was one of 184 people netted in a global pedophile sting by the Australian Federal Police.

The three-year international operation busted the Netherlands-based website Boylover.net, an online ring that tried to hide behind claims of legitimate conversation about paedophilia.

The website had 70,000 members, mostly men.

It is the biggest syndicate uncovered by police worldwide and four of the 31 Australian men arrested are alleged to be high-ranking members.

Sandy Bay GP Jeremy Phillip Buddle, 41, was sentenced in the Supreme Court in Hobart on March 4 after pleading guilty to using a carriage service for child pornography and possessing child exploitation material. The charges related to thousands of images of eastern European boys aged between five and 15 found by federal police on Buddle’s computer.

Operation Rescue began in 2007 and involved police from Australia, the US, New Zealand, Europe, the Netherlands and Canada along with investigators from Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

About 230 children were rescued globally because of the sting, including four in Australia.

Police kept the investigation secret, until now, for operational reasons.

The Australian offenders were aged 19 to 84 and included scout leaders, lifesavers and teachers.

“Four of the 31 offenders arrested in Australia held high-level positions in the network,” an AFP spokeswoman said yesterday.

Seventeen of the 31 Australians involved in the ring have already been sentenced to terms ranging from eight years’ jail to 150 hours of community service.

A federal police spokesman said investigations were continuing, with many suspects tracked online and leading police to other websites.

Sentencing Buddle, Justice Shan Tennent said a jail term was necessary. She said: “Courts must take into account the harm activities such as yours can cause.

“The only reason the material you accessed is available is because there are people willing to go looking for it.

“Young children, probably too immature to make a rational decision about whether they want to be involved or not in these photographs, are clearly being exploited.”

Doctor pleads guilty to child porn charges

The Supreme Court has heard a Hobart GP who has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges is a virgin with an exclusive sexual interest in pubescent boys.

Jeremy Phillip Buddle has pleaded guilty to accessing more than 60,000 images of child pornography.

The Supreme Court in Hobart heard Buddle used the internet, over a four year period, to download at least 63,000 pornographic images involving boys.

The 41 year old doctor has pleaded guilty to using a carriage service for child pornography and possessing child exploitation material.

Federal Police searched the Hobart GP’s home after a tip off from UK police that Buddle had accessed a website called “boy lover” .

During sentencing submissions the court heard the Hobart GP was a virgin with an exclusive sexual interest in adolescent boys.

The court heard Buddle was careful to never be left alone with adolescent boys at his practice and was able to control his unusual sexual desire, until he bought a computer and connected to the internet.

Dr Buddle hasn’t practised medicine since federal police searched his home in 2009.